War on Cameras, Rock Star Edition: "Steven Tyler Act" Dies in Hawaii

Aerosmith frontman and rehab enthusiast Steven Tyler has a house on Maui. Not so long ago, Tyler pushed Hawaii lawmakers to craft a celebrity privacy bill that, unsurprisingly gathered support from other publicity hounds who always want to be in the news except when they don't.

Foxnews.com has the dish:

Tyler, who owns a multimillion dollar home on Maui, earlier said he asked Sen. Kalani English, from Maui, to introduce the bill after someone photographed him with his girlfriend at his home in December.

Along with Tyler, rock legend Mick Fleetwood, who has restaurant in McKelvey's district, personally appeared to urge lawmakers to pass the bill. Their appearance generated buzz in the state Capitol, as staffers snapped cellphone pictures of the stars and compared them in the hallways after the hearing.

Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne and several other high-profile celebrities also submitted written testimony in favor of the bill.

Alas, for Tyler and his rag-tag band of citizen activists, the bill is unlikely to pass, which means that such folks—despite their god-like status on stages around the world—will be treated kinda sorta like the rest of us. If only First Amendment rights weren't so important that they apply even to paparazzi! And, of course, to citizens photographing the cops. Thank god that we live a nation of laws, not moobs.

In 2010, Reason TV, with the help of C-SPAN's Brian Lamb, asked the terrifying-yet-urgen question: "Why have cameras been in Katie Couric's colon but not the Supreme Court?" The answer may surprise you.

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“publicity hounds who always want to be in the news except when they don’t”

There are so many good arguments against this sort of law – especially free speech/press arguments – but this is a bad argument. It can be used to attack the right to privacy across the board. “He put all sorts of personal information on Facebook, why is he complaining about the NSA tapping his phones, he obviously isn’t committed to his own privacy!”

While I am skeptical of censorship in the name of privacy, there are plenty of *legitimate* applications of the right to privacy, and this right even protects those who, in some parts of their life, are exhibitionists. That doesn’t mean they can’t keep *some* of their life private. You may as well say that if the chick was wearing a short skirt it’s OK to rape her.

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I am a photographer- not for money. The right to photography is a first amendment right and applies to anything that can be seen from public property or private property that a photographer has been allowed to photograph from- so long as you are not trying to photograph through closed Venitian blinds or something like that.

Taste in what should be photographed is a different and non-legal matter, most celebrities are just not appealing to the eye when they’re not playing make believe.

Get a telephoto lens because the picture will be better, naturally for things far away. Just go near an airport, stay in public places, take pictures. If you’re taking a flight, you can take pictures in the gate and on the ramp if the plane boards on the ramp. You can even take pictures out the plane window. No one will care, probably.

I know more than a few trainspotters that have been harassed and told they weren’t allowed to take pictures of the locomotives or the tracks. Luckily, my friends know their rights and politely told the officer to go fuck himself.

Dammit, reason! You’ve got to warn people if you’re going to post NSFW topless pics of old trannies. Fuck, now I’m going to get fired because my IT department is going to think I’m frequenting a tranny porn site.